Psycosocial Assessment of the Soloist
Running Head: Strengths Based Assessment 1
Strengths Based Assessment: The Soloist
By Colleen Austin
SOWK 587a
University of Southern California
Professor Brittani Morris
Strengths Based Assessment 2
Character Identification
Describe the character you choose as your focus. Include race, ethnicity, age, religion, sex, marital status, living situation, educational level, internal strengths (coping mechanisms, skills, experience, ability to connect to others, resilience, determination, flexibility, commitment, loyalty, etc.).
Mr. Nathanial Anthony Ayers is a middle aged, black African-American man. He is spiritual but identifies with no specific religion, he does pray in the movie, saying the Our Father. He is unmarried, and is homeless. He displays signs of mental illness, most likely schizophrenic as evidenced by his paranoia and he hears voices. He began to hear voices in adolescence. At one point he thought his sister was trying to poison him, so he forced her to eat the food she brought to him. He lived in the basement of the home he grew up in. It wasn’t obvious, but he must have remained living with his sister after his mother died. When he went to Juilliard, he got an apartment and the voices became more prominent. There is no evidence that he was ever diagnosed with a mental illness. He has a difficult time maintain relationships with others because he is mentally ill and continually talks to himself.
Nathanial has a high school education. He was also accepted and completed some classical music training from Juilliard, according to a teacher there, he just stopped showing up. What happened in his life from that point until the present is unknown. Although he is homeless, one of his possessions is a violin, which only has two strings. In doing this, Nathanial shows determination, because even though he doesn’t have a complete instrument he stills continues to play it.
Strengths Based
Strengths Based Assessment: The Soloist
By Colleen Austin
SOWK 587a
University of Southern California
Professor Brittani Morris
Strengths Based Assessment 2
Character Identification
Describe the character you choose as your focus. Include race, ethnicity, age, religion, sex, marital status, living situation, educational level, internal strengths (coping mechanisms, skills, experience, ability to connect to others, resilience, determination, flexibility, commitment, loyalty, etc.).
Mr. Nathanial Anthony Ayers is a middle aged, black African-American man. He is spiritual but identifies with no specific religion, he does pray in the movie, saying the Our Father. He is unmarried, and is homeless. He displays signs of mental illness, most likely schizophrenic as evidenced by his paranoia and he hears voices. He began to hear voices in adolescence. At one point he thought his sister was trying to poison him, so he forced her to eat the food she brought to him. He lived in the basement of the home he grew up in. It wasn’t obvious, but he must have remained living with his sister after his mother died. When he went to Juilliard, he got an apartment and the voices became more prominent. There is no evidence that he was ever diagnosed with a mental illness. He has a difficult time maintain relationships with others because he is mentally ill and continually talks to himself.
Nathanial has a high school education. He was also accepted and completed some classical music training from Juilliard, according to a teacher there, he just stopped showing up. What happened in his life from that point until the present is unknown. Although he is homeless, one of his possessions is a violin, which only has two strings. In doing this, Nathanial shows determination, because even though he doesn’t have a complete instrument he stills continues to play it.
Strengths Based